"I Chug Green Tea All Day": A 5 month experiment

So ever since I have gone full time at Barstool I have been in the office a lot more. Like a lot of people who start to work in offices, I got to the crossroads in my life where I could decide to become a coffee addict. Not that I did not want to become a coffee addict but I just thought there had to be some healthier alternative than drinking 10 cups of coffee every day and white-knuckling your keyboard to stay awake. If I start drinking coffee I would just end up drinking cup after cup because I get bored and thought it would make me more productive, meanwhile, my heart is beating out of my chest and I am profusely sweating. 

So I decided to try something out. I decided to drink a shit ton of green tea every day because everyone said it had insane health benefits. From my research, it has way less caffeine than coffee but has a combination of other compounds that provide great benefits. I have basically been drinking at least 5 cups of green tea on weekdays for about 5 months now and I have seen results. Here are the claims and my experience with them.

1. Boosts Metabolic Rate, Burn more calories day to day.

This was the first thing I noticed chugging 5 cups of green tea a day. I did seem to slim out without any changes in diet or extra cardio. My whoop's strain score went up fractionally and on days I didn't work out I was easily burning up to 3000 while just blogging and podcasting. The only exercise I got would be walking to the train. This did make me lose some weight but I think it was more bloat. I like to think that every cup of green tea I drink negates a beer I drank over the weekend, definitely doesn't work scientifically but who knows. 

2. Better Mental focus, Caffeine, and blend of Chemical way different than coffee

Now for those who are caffeine addicts and need tons of caffeine, you may think Green tea is pretty mid, but what I noticed is the buzz from Green tea is better for getting into a "Flow state" where doing things like writing blogs or problem-solving comes easiest. This is different than straight jittery caffeination that comes with tons of coffee or pre-workout. Also, I never got to the point where I drank so much Green Tea I ever felt jittery. If anything it always prolonged the "locked-in" focus. The science behind this is the Amino acid L-theanine which I think is an awesome compound that has an anti-anxiety effect. This combined with caffeine causes a Nootropic effect which I can only describe as a cool calm and collected energy. I am actually currently writing this blog after drinking 2 cups of green tea I put in a kettle and left to soak all night so it's super strong. I am 100% in the flow state right now. It is much more productive energy than straight caffeination.

2a. L-Theanine cures mental parts of hangovers

L-theanine is a miracle amino acid that if you take alone, in a supplement form, really helps with sleep, calmness, and relaxation. It is the ultimate cure for the Sunday scaries in my book. Hangovers are caused by the physical: dehydration, body flushing out toxins- and the Mental: anxiety rebound from alcohol suppressing it. Alcohol increases the effects of GABA which is a huge component in relaxation. After a night of drinking GABA doesn't exactly work as well and L-theanine helps re-increase the activity of the neurotransmitter GABA. It's really quite interesting how that works. 

3. Reduces Bad Breath

This was one aspect I had read about with green tea that I was unsure about. It is better than coffee for your breath, but I don’t know if it supposedly was better than a baseline. According to several studies, the antioxidant "catechins" in Green tea prevented certain bacteria that can cause cavities and bad breath to form. I Just kind of realized it was better than coffee breath tbh.

4. Makes Memory Better

This was actually the weirdest thing I noticed about drinking so much green tea. I was able to pull names, places, and events from my memory better. Instead of being like "Whose that guy, or whats that place" and seeing their face but not remembering their name. In my line of work, it's a lot of pulling out names, stats, or facts. I noticed this most on the dozen when I was better able to pull names of things like Davy Jones, Red Back Salamander. If I was tired or not in the "Flow State" tons of Green tea puts me in my brain would of stumbled around "Whose the tentacle beard pirate from Pirates of the Caribbean". It was more instantaneous memory recollection. 

5. Immune system rock solid

There is a ton of Vitamin C and others in it. I haven't really gotten sick and the one time I got a cough (non-covid) I was pretty much able to power through it with Green Tea.

Also, Green Tea is supposed to be anti-cancer, anti-Alzheimers, anti-Parkinsons, and all that superhuman stuff. So honestly there is no downside to just chugging tons of tea every day. I like to drink it on ice so it's basically water.